


Genma and the Ducklings

by Foodmoon



Series: Genma's Ducklings [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Ducklings - Freeform, Gen, Mother Hen Shiranui Genma, Wherein both Konoha and Kumo nin are worried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 10:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16061405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foodmoon/pseuds/Foodmoon
Summary: It's just a courier run, he didn't expect to pick up ducklings along the way.OrIt was just a training trip, he didn't expect to lose his genin in the process, or end up having to explain it to the Raikage.





	Genma and the Ducklings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SectorDweller](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SectorDweller/gifts).



> For SectorDweller, for helping me unstick my uncooperative muse on this one.  
> This is a oneshot.

Jounin Akio Ohno cringes under his Raikage’s _deeply disappointed_ look, which is liberally mixed with impending temper.

“You lost? Your genin team? And you _can’t find_ them? But you don’t _think_ they’re dead? And you want a tracker to help you find them?” Ay rumbles in a flat tone edged with incipient rage.

“Yes, Yondaime-sama.” Akio winces as his voice squeaks and clears his throat softly. “Actually, a tracker team, if possible. The tracker tags I have on Mei and Ren are still active and moving, so they haven’t died or had the tags removed, but…” _But Maru’s tag is inactive, which means he’s dead or his tag has been removed._ He’s not sure which is the worse option at this point, honestly.

“And why, exactly, can one of my jounin _not track_ his own tracker tags?”

“That…I don’t know. They were working fine the day before. Now I can’t pinpoint them, no matter what I do. And I’m… Tracking is not my best skill, Yondaime-sama.”

Ay stares at him with an expression that sends chills down his spine, then finally says, “You can have Yori. And if you don’t bring them all back alive, including Yori, you will be busted down to chunin permanently.”

Akio flinches. “Yes, Raikage-sama.”

He flees before Ay can think up some worse punishment to add to his misery.

~

Toukubetsu jounin Genma Shiranui chews on his favorite senbon and wonders exactly where and how he has managed to acquire a trio of Kumo ducklings. Well, genin, but really, there’s hardly anything to differentiate ducklings from genin. It’s not that he minds the ducklings, per se. Kumo and Konoha are a bit _hostile_ , but they have a treaty, and he has no reason to harm genin if it’s outside of mission orders or outright war. They’ve been fairly obedient little gakis, too.

The real problem is that they seem to have misplaced their jounin sensei a bit more drastically than Genma had first assumed.

When he had found them a week ago, next to the oddly steaming ruins of a recently destroyed but old and abandoned woodsman’s shack, they had said something about the boy touching an old seal that turned out to be an exploding tag and being knocked unconscious. As the one closest to the explosion, the boy was a bit roughed up and slightly concussed, but otherwise fine, and his body had blocked the girls from the main force of the explosion, so all they had was a few nasty scratches to show for their misadventure. At the time, Genma had assumed that their jounin sensei would track them down within minutes or hours, so he hadn’t said much to discourage them from following him. After all, the noise of the explosion had attracted his attention; it could attract the attention of more unsavory folks as well, and the ducklings were probably safer with him than waiting alone.

He sighs. “Ren, stop. If you put that mushroom in the soup, we’ll all be hallucinating and puking our guts out for days. Maru, don’t touch that unless you want a nasty, nasty rash that will spread by touch. That’s poison oak. Mei, if you don’t quit prodding that snake, you’ll wish you had. Their venom isn’t deadly, but it is quite painful.”

The green-haired girl squawks and drops her handmade wooden senbon from her mouth in the fire _(and what their jounin sensei is going to have to say about her mimicking a Konoha ninja, kami only knows)_ , before flinging the offending mushroom away.

The brown-haired child jumps back from the snake, eyeing it with actual wariness now.

And the boy with dark, frizzy hair yelps and jerks his hand away from the plant he’d almost touched, giving it a vastly betrayed look. “I thought it was mountain laurel.”

“Nope. Live and learn, kid, live and learn.” Genma says unsympathetically.

 _Yeah, this is gonna be a problem._ With his courier mission over, he’s going to end up dragging the ducklings back to Konoha if their erstwhile sensei doesn’t show up soon.

~

Yori gives Akio a scathing look. “And you didn’t _think to mention_ that your gakis ran into an Uzushio seal someone left lying around?”

Akio blinks and takes a better look at the clearing, then frowns. “I thought they triggered a trap, not a seal.”

The tracker huffs. “Well, it definitely was a trap, just one designed to aid the one who activates it. By the looks of it, you’re lucky it wasn’t intended to kill. Probably left by some refugee of Uzushiogakure. But at least I now know why a _jounin_ needs my help tracking his own genin. It’s probably designed to screw with any tracking jutsus or tags, as well as throwing something like a subtle genjutsu over visual tracks. Fortunately for you, I prefer to track by scent.”

He sags in relief. “They should still be nearby, then. Or on their way home?”

Yori snorts. “Oh, no. You’re not _that_ lucky.  They’ve got someone else with them. Probably attracted by the trap going off. Could be a civilian or a friendly since they don’t smell alarmed, but worst case is your gakis got genjutsued into coming along of their own accord.”

Akio wilts. “I’m going to be a chunin forever, aren’t I?”

“Depends on how your gakis’ luck runs, I guess.” Yori snaps back without pity.

~

Genma twitches. “We’re being followed.”

“Akio sensei finally found us?” Mei looks pleased at the prospect.

“Maybe.” Eyes scanning the forest, he spots a good place as any to make a stand. “Let’s get up in those trees ahead and find out who’s behind us. I’ll stay between you and them until we know if they’re an enemy or not. If it’s an enemy, hightail it. Split up if you have to. Konoha’s not far from here, and if even one of you gets there and gives my name, they’ll defend you and send out backup.”

“Hai, Genma-sensei!” Ren replies and the other two nod.

He refrains from rolling his eyes at the title, but he might be just a little pleased at Ren’s obvious attachment to him. Like, a senbon’s prick worth of pleased.

~

Instinct has tracker chunin Yori jumping back a second before a senbon pierces the ground right where his foot had been. He looks up to see a brunet in a Leaf hitai-ate worn like a bandanna, crouched in a tree just ahead. No kids in sight, but they’re not far.

He bites back a curse as Akio clumsily dodges his backwards move and stumbles into sight as well. It’s beyond him how a jounin can be so inept at times.

“Yori, what-? Oh.”

“What are your intentions?” The brunet demands in a wary tone.

The tracker curls his lip and jerks a thumb at Akio, who is still staring like the idiot he clearly is. _Seriously? How is the man a jounin?_ “Trying to find this one’s wayward genins after they ran afoul of some Uzumaki trap seal. Kami only knows how it survived this long, but it’s been covering your tracks and messing up his tracker tags on the girls.”

“Hm. The girls?” The brunet idly puts another senbon in his mouth.

“The one on Maru stopped working entirely.” Akio replies, looking miffed and concerned.

“Huh. First time I’ve heard of someone using tracker tags on their genin. Most don’t use them at all. Maru, eh? Well, good luck finding them.”

Yori’s tilts his head. “Don’t lie, Konoha. I can smell ‘em. Give Akio’s gakis back so we can keep the damned treaty intact, ne?”

Konoha’s always been the one that wants the treaty more, but Yori can’t say he’s exactly eager to go to war with them. Leaf ninja might be a little soft in the head, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t mean fuckers in a battle.

There’s some furious whispering in the trees a few yards behind the brunet, then a girl’s voice calls out, “It’s okay, Genma sensei, that’s Akio sensei! And Mei thinks the other guy is one of our trackers.”

The brunet, apparently ‘Genma’, sighs long and low and world weary. “You’d better have used ‘kai’ before you decided that, duckling.”

“Hai, Genma sensei!” “Of course we did!” “We did!” Three young voices say at once, two of them indignant.

Genma chews on his senbon for another moment, then nods. “Alright, ducklings, if you say so. Glad you two showed up before I had to explain to the Hokage why some Kumo genin followed me home. Get out here, gakis, so your sensei can take you home!”

A rather tattered looking chubby boy with black hair comes out first, followed by a petite brunette, and a slightly larger girl with pale green hair, who stops to give Genma a quick hug before jumping down to join her teammates.

Huh. _Ducklings indeed._ Cute little gakis, if scarily naïve.

**Author's Note:**

> Ohno is an actual surname that means ‘small’ ‘field’. But I liked the play on words, since it reads ‘oh no’ in English, which pretty much fits his situation. Akio is a bit of a spazz, but he actually does deserve his rank. Mei is his favorite student, though he's good at teaching all of them equally.
> 
> Yori is Kumo's best tracker. He's also a little intimidating.


End file.
